
In the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes a reformistic story to make common issues in her time known. This time period was one full of male dominance and the subjection of women. The world around Gilman caused her to write this story to make these large issues visible to the rest of society. Reformation was just beginning and starting to “turn its gears”. In the late 1800s to early 1900s, reformists looked to writing in hopes that the world could truly understand that change was a necessity. Writers Nellie Bly and Charlotte Perkins Gilman did the most for their cause. They understood the importance for a change in society and how crucial it was to the development of this country. Often times, it takes a vision from one individual for the rest of society to see the greatness of that vision. Visionaries have sculpted our country from head to toe and without Gilman, this country could still be a male-dominated society. For this reason, Gilman published the Yellow Wallpaper, to expose the daily wrongs of society. 

The author of this story, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, draws heavily from fellow reformists Nellie Bly and John Dewey. Like Dewey, Gilman was a pragmatist. Pragmatists are people who seek out a problem and find different ways to fix it (“Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Instrumentalism beyond Dewey”). It is understandable for the reader to be questioning the motive to produce a 6,000-word story on mental health and the wrongful patriarchal society that is occurring in the late 1800s. Gilman wrote this to add to her fellow pragmatic’s, John Dewey, work as a reformist. Like Gilman, Dewey wanted to change the world to make it a better place for those after him. He started the idea of Progressivism ("Jennifer Daniels UEGE 5102UEGE 5102 Historical ..."). Progressivism is an educational theory that supports active learning. Dewey was an example to Gilman on how to make a social change that can benefit the community and make the change effectively. Nellie Bly was another very instrumental reformist who worked well with Gilman. Bly released the book “Ten Days in a Madhouse”. This book was instrumental in showing the reality of how mental asylums truly were, regardless of how the general media portrayed it. Gilman was able to draw inspiration from these fellow reformists of that time and continued to work harder because she knew they were working as well. One could say that these three were the “Big 3” of the late 1800s when it comes to reformation. Gilman was constantly encouraged by her fellow reformists work and that pushed her to keep trying and to make this world better for those who came after her. In a time when social reform was not common and was downcast, having Bly and Dewey alongside Gilman made things less of a challenge for the three. Whenever Gilman was discouraged, she was able to be inspired by her fellow reformists. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s main work of reformation was the release of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The world around her was not how it is today. The 1800s were ruled by patriarchal ideas, bad healthcare, and the idea that most women would never amount to anything in their lives. Looking at this 6,000-word short story from a shallow lens, it would be easy for the reader to become confused and not understand how this story may accomplish anything. A reader may suggest that this fine piece of literature was a simple story about a crazy wife who is married to a rich working man. To understand how beautiful Gilman’s work is, the reader must dig deep and try to grasp the true message of this story. This story is more than just a crazy wife and a rich husband. It is a story of a woman who is looked down on because of her gender. She is treated like debris that just glides around whichever way the wind wants it to go. Her life is controlled and she simply desires freedom, but her husband makes her stay isolated in a room because he believes she is mentally ill. In reality, the wife is controlled by her husband because she is a female. The lack of freedom causes her to keep a journal and write about things in the room in which she was confined. In this patriarchal society, the husband acts like he knows all and what is best for the woman, but ultimately makes his wife much worse because he will not listen to her and what she thinks the best for her. Gilman creates a brilliant illustration of just how crazy this woman has become when the wife of this man says, "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes one think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper – the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell." Gilman accurately shows how her husband’s idea of what is best for the wife actually turns out to hurt her. The marriage shown in this story is more or less a dictatorship. If the husband had not been so controlling, the wife would have had a chance of possibly improving. Another intelligent depiction of this time period and how women were viewed at this time is Gilman’s use of the husband’s sister and what she does for the family. In the story, the sister of the husband is practically the slave of the house. She is given the responsibility of taking care of his wife, preparing dinner, and taking care of the kids. When asked about her job by the wife, she describes it as “the best job ever” and that she could not imagine herself doing anything else. Gilman included this in the story to convey that women were settling and not giving themselves a chance to be great. The husband’s sister is practically saying that she is content with being a slave and with being controlled by her brother. This addition to the story creates an illustration of the wrongful patriarchal society that women were in right now. Men were comfortable with treating women like they were nothing and society found that to be acceptable. Ultimately, Gilman strongly exposes this patriarchal society with through the example of the sister.  

The world around Charlotte Perkins Gilman impacted her tremendously. The late 1800s was the beginning of a whole new era for women. It was the emergence of equal rights for women. They began to step outside more and engage in public activities that were typically unheard of for women. At this time, the majority of women remained as wives and mothers, but more and more women began to find work in the workplace. The late 1890s was the emergence of a whole new beginning for women’s rights. Women also began to show themselves “to be physically capable of athletic accomplishments that extended beyond riding a bicycle.” “In 1895, the first Women's Amateur Golf championship was held at Meadow Brook Club in Hempstead, New York and, in 1896, the first women's intercollegiate basketball game took place between Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1899, two all-women ice hockey teams faced off at the Ice Palace in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania” ("American Women in the 1890s | The Classroom | Synonym"). Even though things were changing, it was still ideal that women would work in the house as wives or mothers. During that time, most media outlets, such as magazines, suggested that the best job a woman could have is the opportunity to be a mother or wife. This ceiling did not sit well with reformist Gilman. As change continued to occur, most women in the workforce were single and therefore, providing for themselves. Those with a lack of education and experience were often placed in factories. “Women with some level of education or training found work as nurses, teachers and salespeople in stores. Office jobs were available to women who conveyed proper manners and refinement and also possessed basic clerical skills” ("American Women in the 1890s | The Classroom | Synonym").  The male dominant society did not show itself only in the workforce. Voting for the country’s leaders was a very common area where men showed their superiority. In the 1890s, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two popular female reformists, started the National American Woman Suffrage Association to help gain the right to vote and gather equal rights from the world. Gilman was inspired by these two female reformists as well as Bly and Dewey. Stanton and Anthony paved the way for women’s rights and with Gilman’s work alongside them, the eventual goal was accomplished. 

As a reader of a story in this time period, one could have been confused and questioned why would someone write about a crazy woman who has a normal marriage and relationship inside the house. Some readers may have related to the woman because she was a wife and mother and they believed that was the highest a woman attain. Another type of reader may have felt conviction and a desire to end unequal rights and to allow women to have the same opportunity. Those readers could see the wrongs of this patriarchal society. The sense of ownership the husband would show over a wife could possibly draw feelings back to the slavery days. Marriages at the time were similar to the relationship of a slave to its master. The thought of that even being a comparison is scary, but that is how it was during this time. 

This piece of literature by Charlotte Perkins Gilman related heavily to the world around the author. The 1890s were a time of growth for the women’s rights movement and Gilman produced this piece of work to help push that movement along. The relationship between the husband and the wife was extremely applicable to that time period as that. Gilman included this to hopefully show readers how this type of relationship is wrong. The relation of this work of literature to the world around Gilman truly creates a great illustration of life for women in this era. Without this strong relationship, this story would not be nearly as effective. John Stuart Mill argues that “the social and legal conditions which restrict the liberty of women serve as one of the chief hindrances to human improvement” (“John Stuart Mill's ‘The Subjection of Women’: A Re-Examination”). Mill’s understanding of the time directly correlates with Gilman’s and how there needs to be change for society to advance. 

In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author uses the rhetorical strategy known as “Description” to help create a strong image in the reader’s mind. “Good description creates vivid images in the mind of a reader. The writer makes it clear where the feelings of the writer are made obvious by the word choices in the description” ("Rhetorical Strategies"). The use of this strategy allowed Gilman to create an accurate depiction of women’s rights at this time. Using different scenarios, statements made by characters, and certain images, Gilman was able to create multiple scenes for the reader. Gilman also used the rhetorical strategy “Narration”. Narration clearly tells a story, but it focuses on descriptions and the action in that story. Narratives have a message behind them and an idea that the author wants the reader to understand and that it why Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” this way. 

All in all, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a strong reformist in the 1800s who sought to improve the rights of women and make sure their rights were equal to those of a man. Without her work, the movement to gain equal rights for women could have never happened or been extremely delayed. Gilman paved the way for other reformists and showed them that it can be done. The story “the Yellow Wallpaper” will go down as one the most important pieces of literature regarding women’s rights. It helped shaped America for women today. 
